Riding For The Brand.... Finally

I have been working with the New Mexico Livestock Board - Brand division for the past 5 months to get my Grandpa's brand transferred to my name. Grandpa decided this past year to not renew the brand and no one else in the family wanted to either. But I did - I didn't want the brand to just get released where anyone can register it. So I took up the torch. What a process!!!

We all thought, since Grandpa didn't renew it I could just pay the $75 fee and have it transferred to my name but... that would be easy... so of course that's not how it went. In September I printed out the transfer forms, sent in the money and waited... for a month, then I got the forms back with highlights - I needed to pick my second and third choice of brands, and submit the fee (oops!!). So I wrote a check and put in a note saying this was my Grandpa's brand that he was not renewing it and I wanted to keep it in the family AND I didn't want another brand. So I sent it all off again and waited.... another month passed and I get a phone call asking when my Grandpa passed and if my Grandma was still alive. So, I explained that both are still alive and well and that I just wanted the brand transferred to me since they didn't want to renew it any longer. That led to Grandpa having to produce a bill of sale for the brand... got that taken care of, just to find out that on the paperwork, Grandma is also listed as owner so she had to produce a bill of sale too. That happened two weeks ago and I checked the NMLSB website today and I am the official owner of the "cross lazy H" brand!!! YEA!!!!!!

The Cross Lazy-H brand

Why was this so important to me? This brand was first registered by my great-grandpa, Henry Elbert Toombs in 1925 and has been in our family ever since. My Dad had it registered in Texas until they moved back to my Grandpa's ranch. I couldn't bear to have it go to some stranger!! It's only $75 every three years and it is a great piece of our family's history. And now its mine!!